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Thursday, October 1, 2015

YA Scavenger Hunt Fall 2015!!

It's that time of year again!! When we all go crazy for a few days, trying to win piles of awesome books! This year, I'm also doing my own personal giveaway, so make sure to read all the way to the VERY BOTTOM of the post for your chance to win a signed ARC of ENDURE!! (The final book in the DEFY trilogy!)

(You can win this!! Make sure to go all the way to the bottom!)

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team!But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday October 4th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

Today I am hosting:

Matthew Phillion!! Welcome Matthew! I hear that he will only eat donuts if he can have21 at a time. (Or maybe that's just a rumor...) Here's more about Matthew:

Matthew Phillion, author of the Indestructibles superhero series, is a writer, actor, and film director based in Salem, Massachusetts. An award-winning journalist by trade, he has also appeared in feature films including the sci-fi romance Harvest Moon and the independent horror flick Livestock. His screenwriting and directing debut, the romantic comedy Certainly Never, premiered in 2013 at the Massachusetts Independent Film Festival, where it was nominated for five awards including best screenplay and best New England film. An active freelance writer and journalist, Phillion continues to write about both local issues and the medical industry.

Time travel is a long-standing tradition among superheroes, and so when Anachronism Annie, a friend and ally of Doc Silence, asks the Indestructibles to journey with her to save an alternate future where everything has gone terribly wrong, the team agrees. In this other timeline, a few small decisions have led to a much darker and more tragic world, and the adult versions of themselves the Indestructibles meet—Solar, the Dancer, Straylight, Whispering, and Entropy Emily—are nothing like they expected. Are they heroes? Martyrs? Or perhaps even villains? And what happens when the young Indestructibles discover that the alternate future’s version of one of their own team has been turned into the very weapon that will be used to destroy the whole world? Can they team up with these darker versions of themselves to save an entire future? It's said that when you time travel, you can never come back the same. How will journeying through time change the Indestructibles? Will they ever be the same? The Entropy of Everything is the third book in the Indestructibles series.

For Matthew's bonus content, he's offering a sneak peek of book 4 in his series! Check it out here:

From the upcoming Book 4 in the Indestructibles series
by Matthew Phillion and PFP Publishing. Books 1, 2 and 3 are available in both
print and e-book formats through all major retailers. You can buy them by clicking HERE!

Prologue: Big sky

Billy Case landed in a field outside the City, an old
playground gone to seed where his parents used to bring him on those rare days
they both could get away from work. Rusted swing sets creaked softy in the
light breeze, the entire field cast in a dark pink light as the sun set,
turning the City’s skyline into shadowy spires.

Billy, the superhero known to the world as Straylight,
looked up into the sky, deep blue darkening to indigo and black, stars so faint
as to be almost invisible. A city sky, the sort where the ambient light all
cities cast off devour the glimmer of stars and turn the night into a
neon-bathed day.

“You know, I didn’t really notice stars till that time Jane
took us to her parents’ farm,” Billy said, as if to no one. But he wasn’t alone.
Billy Case was never alone, not with the symbiotic alien sharing his body
acting as his constant companion, his conscience, his Jiminy Cricket.

This is something you
Earthlings do far too often, the alien, whom Billy had dubbed Dude, much to
the creature’s annoyance, said. I’ve been
on your planet a long time, and I’ve never understood how you look up so rarely.

“We get busy,” Billy said. “We get distracted. And then, I
guess… then it’s too late. The stars pass us by.”

They had not long ago returned from a trek into an alternate
future, Billy and Dude and the rest of the Indestructibles team, and none of
them had come back the same. Billy, in particular, felt more pensive, more
inclined to melancholy. But then again, he’d suffered a unique trauma there,
sharing memories with his future self, witnessing his own death in that
timeline. Things just seemed a little less funny now, though he did his best to
keep those worries to himself when he was with the others.

And then a few days ago an alien had crash-landed on Earth,
an alien sharing Billy’s powers, with a symbiotic alien just like Dude living
inside him. The alien had been more than half-dead, desperate to find his
counterpart here, to warn him. An invasion was coming. Another species, and not
the friendly and charming kind like Dude. Headed for Earth-fall. Dude called
them the Nemesis.

Billy spent a lot of time the past few days looking up at
the sky.

Now he saw the others approaching, Jane flying through the
evening air like a ball of fire, Entropy Emily far less gracefully drifting
behind her in one of her “bubbles of float.” They were looking for him, Billy
knew. They needed to figure out what to do. How to stop this invasion. If they
could stop this invasion. Billy sat down on a rusted swing, hoping it would
hold his weight, and let himself rock back and forth, taking unexpected comfort
in the soft squeaking of the chains as he moved. Jane landed nearby, then
Emily. Together the girls approached him. Jane stopped in front of him and
folded her arms across her chest, her hair moving and dancing like open flame.
Emily plopped down on the swing next to him and began to swing for real, legs
kicking to stay in motion.

“You know I’m going to have to go up there and scout things
out,” Billy said to Jane. Her mouth was a tight line of worry across her face.

“I can go with you,” Jane said. “You shouldn’t go into space
alone.”

“Can you believe we’re talking about this?” Emily said.
“Going into space? I mean, seriously. Eighteen months ago I was getting in
trouble for jaywalking and now we’re talking about interstellar travel. Space.
The final frontier.”

Emily began whistling the theme song to Doctor Who softly. When Billy gave her
a dirty look, she immediately switched gears to the “Binary Sunset” theme song
from Star Wars.

“What?” Emily said. “Tell me that’s not apropos.”

Billy smiled at her then turned back to Jane.

“No, I have to go alone,” Billy said. “You’re the big gun.
Everyone will need you here if I don’t come back.”

“I think we’re both the big guns on this team, Billy,” Jane
said. “Especially after what happened to you in that other timeline.”

She had a point. They had always been the two most powerful
members of the Indestructibles, and Jane seemed to get stronger every day as
her solar-powered abilities built up over time. But Billy had absorbed some of
the strength of his future self while they were in that other timeline, and it
seemed to be permanent. He could do things he hadn’t been able to before. It
had changed him physically, too; his eyes glowed blue-white all the time now,
the way their mentor Doc Silence’s glowed violet. They both had scars from
trying to take on too much power now. Billy wondered if he should get some
signature sunglasses like Doc wore.

“I’ll be fine on my own, Jane,” Billy said. “I won’t engage
them. I’m just going to get some eyeballs on whatever is headed our way and
then come right back.”

“Maybe the alien will wake up and tell us that,” Jane said,
referring to the Straylight-like creature who had come here to warn them of the
pending invasion. The being remained unconscious at the Tower. Dude told Billy
the other symbiotic alien would try to heal its host, but for now, both were in
a state of stasis, unable to tell them anything else about what was headed
their way.

Billy said nothing, listening intently to the creaking of
Emily’s swing, rocking his own to create a call and answer between the two.
Creak swing, creak swing, creak swing.

“The two of you,” Jane said, smirking. “You can’t even help
it when you’re together to do stuff like that.”

“We’re a team, yo,” Emily said.

Billy leaned back and looked into the night sky again. It
felt so overwhelming, looking up there. Like it went on forever.

It makes me feel insignificant, Dude, Billy thought.

It makes us all feel
insignificant, Billy Case, Dude said. And
it should. If outer space doesn’t make you feel insignificant I would be
worried about your ego.

You already worry about my ego, Billy thought.

True enough, Dude
said.

“It’s amazing how big it is, isn’t it?” Billy said.

“What,” Emily said.

“The sky.”

“That’s kind of what it is. ‘Big’ is its defining
characteristic,” Emily said.

“I know what you mean,” Jane said. “On my parents’ farm I
used to lay on my back and just look up and be amazed at how it felt so
endless. Just stars and blackness.”

“I was born in the City,” Billy said. “I grew up there. The
sky was just that sliver of blue you saw between buildings on those rare
occasions you looked up. We didn’t have stars. We didn’t have big sky.”

“This is known,” Emily said. “Seriously, the first time I
went somewhere without ambient urban light I thought I was struck blind.”

“If you want, I can go to scout and you can stay here,” Jane
said. From anyone else it would have felt like a taunt. From Jane is was simply
an honest offer to take away some of your own pain and fear.

“No,” Billy said. “This one’s my job.”

“Okay,” Jane said.

Billy and Emily continued their rhythmic swinging as the sun
crept closer to the horizon.

“You’re not leaving right now, are you?” Emily said.

“No,” Billy said. “Got a few things I should do first.”

“Like write a will?” Emily said.

“Emily!” Jane said.

Billy laughed.

“Like I have anything to leave behind,” he said.

“You do,” Emily said. “I, William Byron Case, bequeath to
Entropy Emily sole custody of our dog
Watson in the event I die tragically in a battle in outer space.”

“It’s all about the dog with you, isn’t it, Em,” Billy said.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’d rather you come home,” she said.
“But you better make sure the dog stays with me if you don’t.”

I super duper promise to not spoil the ending of Endure anywhere, not even to my best friend! And I would love to win it because I need to read it and why wait to do something when you can do it right now (almost) :)

The trailer was enticing. The book cover is gorgeous. The storyline intriguing. Discovered this book and the series here on the Fall YASH. Definitely adding this series to my TBR list and looking forward to stepping into the world you have created for your readers.

Always love an opportunity to win an ARC of a book. Thank you, Sara, for the giveaway and for participating in this FALL YASH.

I really like the idea of the series, they have appealed to me since Defy and recieving the last book would give me the boost i've been needing to read the series. I've been in a book slump lately and it'd definitely pull me out. And spoilers are the worst so that definitely wouldn't happen! :) Hope you have a good launch of the final book! :)

This is such a wonderful giveaway! Thank you so much :-)I cannot wait to read Endure because Defy is so fantastic and how am I supposed to cope without it? :-DThank you again, my rafflecopter name is Megan S.

I just finished Ignite a couple of days ago (I real DEFY when it first came out and LOVED IT, but when IGNITE came out, I didn't want to have to wait another year for the next installment - I did it once, it was awful; so I figured the third one comes out soon, I'll read it IGNITE now). Last night I dreamed about an arranged marriage, which came out of left field. The only thing I remember is the guy was Dansiian.

I JUST finished Defy and LOVEDLOVEDLOVED it!! Alexa is the BEST strong heroine. I started Ignite yesterday (haven't finished yet) but I know I'm gonna love it too. Endure looks gorgeous!! Can't wait to finish Ignite and read Endure!! Thanks for the chance at winning. :)

I'd love to win Endure because I've been wanting to read the Defy series for ages and it would give the the push to go out and buy Defy so I can marathon the series :)Thank you so much for the giveaway!

I would love to win an ARC of Endure so I could both swoon over the ending and recommend it to everyone! I also promise not to spoil the ending. Thank-you for the amazing giveaway and I can't wait to read Endure!!

Endure sounds really interesting and I'd love to read it, especially an ARC, I think that would make it even more exciting! And, as a person who has been the victim of spoilers in the past, I promise with all my heart not to spoil the ending, I know the anguish it can bring :P

Spoilers are the worst and I avoid them like healthy foods! I would love to be able to have you 'featured' on my blog for December and be able to post a review of one of your books every week that month leading up to the release of Endure and ending with a review of that the day it comes out!

Cause I've been CRAZY over this series for YEARS ever since Defy's goodreads page went up months before its release. I have both hardcover pretties on my favorites bookshelf at home, so I can't wait to add Endure to complete the family. :)) Thanks Sara!

I have been waiting forever for the final book to come out before starting the trilogy. After all, we all know how much it sucks to have to waaaaait for the finale. :) Also, my friends have been book-pushing the trilogy on me. I must find out for myself why they like it so much. Thanks for participating in the YASH and for the giveaway!

I would love to win an arc of Endure because I absolutely loved Defy and Ignite and cannot miss out at a chance to read Endure earlier! I promise not to spoil anything to anyone no matter how much my heart wants to. Thanks for the giveaway! :)

I want to win this arc because I've read the series and Alexa and Damian are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And after the second book, I died inside when I found out Endure will come out Jan. 6. But now, I can read it if I win!! ALEXA AND DAMIANN <3

I would love to read Endure. I promise that I won't spoil anything. I like reading books early so I can review them on my blog and be able to recommend them to others. I think it is awesome getting to read books early. I think the DEFY series is amazing and I can't wait to read more.

I saw the cover and at first I was just confused. I was sitting there like 'What...? I would never read this.' But then I looked closer. The cover is actually so beautiful and made me go look up the previous books. I really want to read this series now. I do this too often... judge a book - not even by the cover - by my very first glimpse of it. Note to self: Stop doing that.

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About Me

I am the author of the DEFY trilogy (DEFY, IGNITE, and ENDURE) and DARK BREAKS THE DAWN (coming May 30th)! I am represented by Josh Adams of Adams Literary. I have an amazing husband, some incredibly cute (and crazy) kids, one maltese, and a sugar addiction. Find me on www.SaraBLarson.com !

IGNITE (DEFY #2)

"Alexa was fierce in Defy (2013), and in this second installment, she remains an interesting, multilayered

character, a valiant fighter with heart. Series fans will be satisfied." - Booklist praise for IGNITE

"...a[n]...engaging read and one that fans of the series

will definitely be seeking." - VOYA praise for IGNITE

PW calls DEFY a "riveting fantasy" with "emotional sincerity and psychological depth" and a "cinematic finale"!

"Larson's debut is full of passion and adventure, urging readers to cheer and weep simultaneously at Alexa's astounding courage. Those interested in strong female characters, such as Katniss from Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, will find new affinity in Defy." - School Library Journal

“A wonderful tale of adventure, romance, and embracing your true self. Alexa is a heroine readers will love to follow!” – Marie Lu, bestselling author of the LEGEND series

"DEFY by Sara Larson is an amazing, fantastic book. It has everything you'd want: intrigue, awesomely real characters, suspense, and a captivating plot. All in a world that comes to life in your mind. Highly recommended." – James Dashner, bestselling author of THE MAZE RUNNER

"Set in a medieval world full of danger, magic and romance, Larson's exciting tale will appeal to fans of high fantasy. The plot is fast-paced and the story full of unexpected twists and turns. [DEFY] ...will leave readers craving for more." - Children's Literature.